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Part 1, Listening Comprehension
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
How to Reduce Stress
Good morning! Today we look at how to reduce stress. As you all know, life always has stresses, Ur, things which are causing us stress and living without stress is virtually impossible. So, if we have to live with stress, we may as well find out more about what it is ,how we can deal with it and so on. What is stress, then? The term was originally used in physics to describe the force exerted between two touching bodies. That was strictly a term describing a physical reaction. Then in the 1930s, a doctor named Hans Selye, S-E-L-Y-E, first used this term to describe a human’s reaction to a demand placed on it, pleasant or not. And he included in this response, things like accelerated breathing, accelerated heart rate, increased blood pressure, muscle tension and so on.
Now, please notice that I said that stress can be pleasant or not, this response can also be pleasant or not. And stress can be both negative and positive. Let’s take a look at positive stress. Positive stress occurs in a life situation towards which one feels positively, things like Christmas or getting married are usually positive events, but still stressful, nonetheless. Another example is the pressure in a job can give some people incentive to work and excitement, but it still is stress. Negative stress is what most of us think of when we think of stress. And negative stress occurs logically enough in situations towards which one feels negatively. And those examples could be test-taking, a friend’s death and so on. But here a thing to remember is that stress in itself is not hazardous. Rather, the danger is in the individual’s reaction to the stress. So psychologists have found that if we develop appropriate ways to cope with stressful situations, individuals can reduce the physiological harm which is caused by stress, or which can be caused by stress. And that’s what I want to talk a bit about today – what are these appropriate ways to deal with stress, how to minimize any negative reactions. The first thing that most psychologists suggest is to learn to recognize your own stress signals. We all have different types of stress signals, but individuals should monitor themselves for stress signals, so that they can focus on minimizing or acknowledging the stress before it gets out of control. And common early signs for many people include irritability, insomnia, weight loss or even weight gain, smoking, drinking, increases in small errors, all kinds of things that people get which could be an early signal of stress.
You can consider ways to protect yourself when you start seeing these signs coming on. So you might decide to withdraw from a stressful situation or reward yourself with equal amounts of low stress activity time. That’s really the first important way to deal with stress appropriately. The second important way to deal with stress is to pay attention to your body’s demands. Most psychologists are finding that a good exercise program, good nutrition, decreases the amount of stress, or the effect of stress on the body or in the mind. And this seems quite apparent because exercise can provide a stress-free environment away from your usual stresses and it keeps your body busy and preoccupied with non-stressful things. OK, the third thing to reduce stress is to make plans and act when appropriate. What is suggested is that rather than wasting energy on worrying, an individual can direct his or her energy to plan the steps and act. And often, just the planning of the action helps to reduce the stress, because it reduces the worrying. And also the results of the plans or action may serve to remove or weaken the original cause of the stress. Please notice that I just now said “when appropriate”. And this next suggestion has to do with that idea of when appropriate. The third suggestion was to make plans and act when appropriate, rather than just sit around and worry. But the fourth plan, or fourth idea, says to learn to accept situations which are out of your control. These two then go hand in hand. You can make plans and act when it’s appropriate, but when it’s not appropriate, or when it’s impossible, the only way is to learn to accept that some things are unchangeable and out of your hands.
So, for example, if you are in traffic, lateness caused by traffic is out of your hands. There’s no sense in getting really crazy about that. If you do so, it only increases your stress to waste energy trying to resist what’s inevitable or what can’t be avoided. The last item that psychologists suggest is to pace your activities. By “pace”, I mean giving yourself some manageable tasks to do at a reasonable speed. That is, you go at a speed that you can handle, break your task into manageable parts, rather than try to deal with the whole task all at once. So, as an example in your lives as students, a whole term paper might feel overwhelming. But if you say to yourself, today I’m going to the library and gather resources, tomorrow, I’m going to read three articles, and so on, you’ll have broken this one large task, that’s writing a term paper, down into many smaller and more manageable tasks. This will certainly reduce your stress. Ok. Having said all these, I want you to remember that the problem is not in the stressful experiences themselves. We all experience stress and stressful events. The problem is in our reactions to these experiences. And each of us has our own limits for stress and our own ways of coping with stress. So long as we have our own appropriate ways, stress or stressful situations can certainly be dealt with. Ok. That’s all for today’s lecture. See you next week.
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Damon: First of all, thank you obviously for your time, Angelina.You are now in Iraq. So what is your main aim in this visit? Whatare you trying to accomplish while you are out here?
Jolie: Well, I came to the region about 6 months ago. I first wentto Syria because I work with U.N.H.C.R. and there are 1.5 millionrefugees in Syria alone from Iraq and while I was there, I went inside and met with some internallydisplaced people. You know, these are the people made homeless because of the war. They arerefugees. And this trip is to get a better picture of the internally displaced people and to discuss thesituation with the local government, with our government, with the NGOs and with local people,and try to understand what is happening, because there are over 2 million internally displacedpeople and there doesn't seem to be a real coherent plan to help them and there's lots of good willand lots of discussion, but just a lot of talk at the moment and a lot of pieces need to be puttogether. So, trying to figure out what they are.
Damon: What kind of sense have you been able to get so far in terms of how severe the crisis isand what actually needs to be done to help out?
Jolie: Well, I, in my research before I came here, I looked at the numbers and there are over4million people displaced and of the 2 million internally displaced, it's estimated that 58 percent areunder 12 years old. So it's a very high number of people in a very, very vulnerable situation and alot of young kids. So far the different officials I've met with and different local people I've met withall have shared concerns and very strongly, you know, they have spoken out about thehumanitarian crisis but um, there seems to be a block in. I'm not good at policy and fixing all thisand saying what's wrong, but I do know that, for example, U.N.H.C.R. needs to be more activeinside Iraq.
Damon: How do you think U.N.H.C.R. should be doing?
Jolie: Well, I don't have the answers, but I know that this is one thing that needs to bead dressedand solved because there does need to be a real presence here to help count the people andregister the people.
Damon: Do you think that the global community has a responsibility to address that?
Jolie: Well I think the global community always has a responsibility to any humanitarian crisis. And Ithink it's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement canlead to a lot of instability and aggression. We certainly don't want that. A lot of people feel it's a littlecalmer now. This is the time to really discuss and try to get these communities back together. Butif these communities don't start coming back together properly, if we don't start really countingthe people, understanding where they are, what they need, making sure the schools are beingbuilt, making sure the electricity, the water and all these needs are being met and alsounderstanding that a lot of the people that will return are going to come back to houses that areoccupied or destroyed and bombed out. It's going to be a big operation to understand the needs,to address it to help people put the pieces of their life back together and return to theircommunities. So it's really just getting the plan together, getting the group together andeverybody actively focused on helping the refugees.
Damon: What would be the message that you would want to carry out of here back home oreven the message that you would want to get out internationally in terms of what's happeninghere, the refugee crisis, the consequences that could happen in the future if it's not properlyaddressed.
Jolie: I always hate speculation on the news, so I don't want to be somebody who speculates. Umbut I think it's clear that a displaced unstable population is what happens in Iraq, and how Iraqsettles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East. And a big part of what is goingto affect how it settles is how these people are returned and settled into their homes into theircommunity and brought back together and whether they can live together and what theircommunities look like, so it does have broad implications.
Damon: On a personal level why is this so important to you? You are willing to come here and riskyour life.
Jolie: Uh, it was an easy choice to make. I felt I had to come here because it is very difficult to getanswers about especially the internally displaced people. It's as I said even U.N.H.C.R. who Itraditionally work with, they are not able to be inside at the moment and so I was very frustratedand just getting a bunch of ideas and papers but not knowing what's really going on, so today I'mable to talk to all different people from our government and their government and really get someanswers as to what is holding up the processes to really assist these people properly.
Damon: Do you think that you in your position can try to push this process forward but, pressureperhaps on our government?
Jolie: To put pressure on our government?
Damon: Yes, so try to just put pressure in general create awareness?
Jolie: I certainly think creating awareness. I spoke to the officials from our government todayabout meeting our goal, and they still intend to reach that goal. You know there are many differentpeople who can be cynical or say well how are they going to do it, and I will ask them how are yougoing to do it and is there some way we can help to ... you know ...
Damon: Ok. Thank you, Angelina, for talking to us.
Jolie: Pleasure.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
News 1:
An Italian cash-strapped budget airline, Wind Jet,has suspendedall its flights, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. At Romeairport, some200 Israeli nationals ─ who had been due to fly toTel Aviv ─ spent the night at the terminal.Another five flights todestinations across Italy were cancelled as well. Further chaos isexpected as some 300,000 passengers across Italy havebooked tickets with Wind Jet incoming weeks. Alitalia, Italy's national airline,says it will help Wind Jetpassengers to find alternative flights, but only on payment of supplements.
News 2:
Researchers studying fossils from northern Kenya have identified a new species of human that livedtwo million years ago. The discoveries suggest that at least three distinct species of humans co-existed in Africa. The research has been published in the journal Nature. Anthropologists havediscovered three human fossils that are between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old. The specimensare of a face and two jawbones with teeth. The discoveries back the view that a skull found in1972 is of a separate species of human, known as Homorudolfensis. The skull was markedlydifferent to any others from that time. It had a relatively large brain and long flat face. But for 40years the skull was the only example of the creature and so it was impossible to say for surewhether the individual was an unusual specimen or a member of a new species. With the discoveryof the three new fossils researchers can say with more certainty that Homorudolfensis really was aseparate type of human that existed around two million years ago alongside other species ofhumans.
News 3:
Picasso's Nude Woman in a Red Armchair was covered up at the Edinburgh Airport. The Airporthas reversed its decision to cover up a poster featuring a Picasso nude following complaints. Theposter was advertising the Picasso and Modern British Art Exhibition at the Scottish National Galleryof Modern Art. However, the airport decided to cover the image after several complaints frompassengers in international arrivals. After gallery chiefs branded the move"bizarre", the airport hasbacked down and removed the cover. John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries ofScotland, said, "It is obviously bizarre that all kinds of images of women in various states of dressand undress can be used in contemporary advertising without comment, but somehow a paintednude by one of the world's most famous artists is found to be disturbing and has to be removed. "I hope that the public will come and see the real thing, which is a joyous and affectionate portraitof one of Picasso's favorite models, an image that has been shown around the world." AnEdinburgh Airport spokesperson said, "We have now reviewed our original decision and reinstatedthe image. And we are more than happy to display the image in the terminal and we'd like toapologize, particularly to the exhibition organizers, for the confusion."
